Video Games
Wii Fit Plus!
I’ve had Wii Fit Plus for ages, but my use of it has been sporadic at best. It’s unfortunate, because it’s a great tool to keep me on track with my fitness and weight loss goals. For the past few days, I’ve been checking in for a Body Test and about a half hour of exercise. The combination of yoga, strength training, cardio, and games is super fun, which means that the time flies by!
My favourite feature is the fitness routines. You can select from a number of preconfigured routines to address trouble spots (I’m loving the waist and arms ones), or design your own. You can also tell the talking Balance Board to create a routine based on the amount of time you have — which is probably my very favourite feature when I’m running late and only have ten minutes to squeeze in a few exercises!
I like the tracking tools, and I’ve been entering the results into MyFitnessPal, which I’ve started using instead of Spark People. They have a really great iPad app, which I’ve been using to track my nutrition and activity. Between my Wii fitness plan, MapMyWALK, and MyFitnessPal, I’ve lost two pounds this week, without much real effort on my part!
Diablo III
Ah, Diablo III. We’ve been waiting twelve years for this, and it’s finally arrived … kind of.
I got my copy of the game because I signed up for the World of Warcraft annual pass. I knew that my boyfriend would be buying the huge collector’s edition, so I didn’t think we’d need two demon skulls, two soulstones, two blu-rays, two art books, and so on. I’m pretty jealous that he gets in-game content, though… the collector’s edition even comes with an in-game WoW pet. I’m the only one of us that plays WoW!
I played for a few hours last night, and got my monk, Eldatari, up to level 9. I’m nearly through the first chapter, which was covered in the beta. Once I get past this, it’ll all be new territory for me in the game. I can’t wait until it really gets started!
Unfortunately, Blizzard’s servers aren’t handling the strain very well. It was to be expected (when have Blizzard’s servers ever handled the strain well? Anybody? Bueller?), but I spent a whole lot of time last night staring at one of these babies:
I woke up early this morning, hoping to play a quick half hour, finish out the opening chapter, and grab a couple more screenshots only to be greeted with some BREAKING NEWS:
I’m hoping that this gets fixed soon, so that I can spend some time during my extra long weekend (I took tomorrow off, to recover from Meshuggah and I’m not going to lie: to play Diablo) fighting the hordes of hell in Sanctuary.
Oh well… I guess if the servers stay this temperamental, I’ll just have to spend some more time saving the universe from Reapers in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect 2
"Amanda, I can't believe you didn't buy that cannon!"
Mass Effect Internet Roundup: No ME3 Spoilers Edition
Garrus has a lot of calibrations to do.
Shepard loves every store… for a price.
The gang gets their own Saturday morning cartoon show
Prototype #1
When I picked up the first issue of Prototype at my local comic store this week, I admit I was judging a book by it’s cover. I had no idea this comic was based on an upcoming video game, I’m just a sucker for slick art and a black and red colour scheme (I’m pretty sure that’s how I found myself watching The Spirit, despite all warnings that it was terrible).
Unlike the aforementioned Spirit film, this comic didn’t disappoint. Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, the story in this issue doesn’t take us anywhere we haven’t been before; in fact, it reads a bit like an adaptation of what would happen if you put Doom and Resident Evil into a blender. But, can you really call that a bad thing? I don’t know about you, but I welcome a game (and its associated comics) that carries on in that vein. Some of the art and colors in here are gorgeous (courtesy of Darick Robertson, Matt Jacobs and Wes Hartman); panels with blood or fire almost seem to leap off the page. The rendering of light on the pages is really fine work.
If demons, zombies, mayhem and bloodshed are your cup of tea, I say give this run a try. 3/5
nintendo dsi and legend of zelda: spirit tracks trailer
Yesterday, I got around to preordering my precious Nintendo-fangirl necessity: the Nintendo DSi. There’s not a huge difference from the last generation, other than the two cameras (I’m interested to see what innovations they might make using the cameras in gameplay, though) but the little touches add up: bigger screens, a slimmer, lighter body, and an SD memory slot. However, this sleek design means that they removed the GameBoy Advance game slot, so I’m a little disappointed that it won’t support GBA games. Either I have to keep two systems to switch out when I want to play old Pokemon games, or I have to … stop playing old Pokemon games. *sigh*
And, just in time for me to start getting excited about new DS games to play on this lovely little system, last week Nintendo announced the next Legend of Zelda game, which is tentatively called “The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.” They released this footage at the Game Developers Conference:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuW2LY6u8uQ]
I’m not sure about the whole concept of train-riding in this game (but look at Link’s sassy v-necked train conductor’s uniform!), but I’m all for pet robots. However, anyone who knows me knows that I’ll buy and play any Zelda game, even if I’m not crazy about it. Hey, when Wind Waker first came out, I didn’t like it because I thought the art style looked stupid… now every game that comes out looks that way, and it’s grown on me. Trains could definitely grow on me too.
